Macron slams French ministers and journalists over leaked Israel comments – POLITICO

BRUSSELS — French President Emmanuel Macron accused his own ministers and journalists of “a lack of professionalism” for leaking controversial remarks he made about Israel at a closed-door Cabinet meeting.

Macron earlier this week told ministers that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not “ignore United Nations decisions.” His comments were leaked and later confirmed by his Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in a parliamentary hearing. Macron was also quoted as saying “Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a U.N. decision.”

The comments, referencing the U.N. General Assembly’s November 1947 vote that terminated the British mandate of Palestine and split the land into a Jewish and an Arab state, provoked fury from Netanyahu — who said that Israel was founded by Holocaust survivors “including from the [Nazi collaborationist] Vichy regime in France” — and anger among France’s Jewish community.